Investigating the Field of Electrolytic Action. 449 



It is obvious that the results described furnish the data for 

 determining with ease and precision, first, physical differences 

 in parts of an electrolytic field; and, secondly, the direction in 

 which the energy is being transmitted relatively to either side 

 or edge of the analyzing-plate, and therefore of its direction in 

 the electrolytic medium. 



Results. 



I. Demonstration of Differences in corresponding parts of 

 Non-homogeneous Fields. — -Few phenomena are more generally 

 known than those of the electric discharge. The feature com- 

 mon to these phenomena is a well-marked difference between 

 the spaces in the immediate vicinity of the + and — elec- 

 trodes. No differences, as far as I am aware, have hitherto 

 been shown to obtain in corresponding parts of electrolytic 

 media. But the supposition that dielectrics and electrolytes 

 differ in degree rather than in kind, as regards the mode in 

 which they transmit the electric influence, is founded on the 

 analogy in the results obtainable in the two media, and is sup- 

 ported by the continuity in electrical qualities evidently pre- 

 valent among substances in general. Differences in corre- 

 sponding parts in the vicinity of the + and — electrodes in 

 certain electrolytic fields might not unreasonably therefore be 

 expected to exist ; and the question naturally arose whether 

 the method of research, the principles of which have been set 

 forth, would reveal such differences. 



In a homogeneous field, analyzers* placed perpendicular 

 to the electrodes in any part of the field showed that they 

 were surrounded by the same conditions ; that is, the magni- 

 tudes of the ions on an analyzing plate were identical close to 

 the — electrode, close to the + electrode, and midway between 

 the electrodes. But on passing to non-homogeneous fields 

 (i. e. where the electrodes are smaller than the transverse 

 section of the electrolyte) this was no longer the case. The 

 magnitudes of the ions on exactly similar analyzers placed 

 perpendicular, in the centre of, and close to these electrodes, 

 in exactly corresponding positions, were markedly different, 

 and the difference increased as the width of the electrodes 

 relative to the cross section of the electrolyte was reduced. 



Differences in corresponding parts of a non-homogeneous 

 field in the vicinity of the electrodes of opposite name are de- 

 monstrable, then, by this method of working, and also that 

 the differences are in some way connected with the power of 



* In all the experiments to be described, the analyzer was placed with 

 its shorter edge vertical in the electrolytic medium, 



